The Hope Infection
by Francis456
Summary: Canon divergence, Junko has a change of heart regarding Chiaki and rescues her from her fate, however, it becomes apparent that she has an ulterior motive, one that she, herself is not aware of, and as a result she starts to change as a result, but unfortunately her past sins are catching up with her and Chiaki must battle in order to give her a happy ending.


**Danganronpa – The Hope Infection**

 **Unwanted Saviour**

 **Disclaimer** – I do not own Danganronpa or any of its characters. Danganronpa and its characters are the property of Kazutaka Kodaka, Spike Chunsoft, NIS America, Lerche and Funimation.

* * *

 **Summery** – A Canon Divergence in which after Nanami Chiaki is "executed", instead of Kamukura Izuru, she is approached by Enoshima Junko, her would-be executioner, who had an apparent change of heart in regards to her fate, and has decided to save her on the basis of her possibly being useful in future. However, as time goes on, it becomes apparent that Junko's explanation is nothing more than an excuse, though even Junko, herself, is unaware of the real reason she spared the gamer girl. Meanwhile, Chiaki starts dreaming about her past, more specifically, she dreams about events in kindergarten pertaining to a girl she had met, and whom she had been separated from due to circumstance. When she awakens, she eventually comes to the shocking realization that Junko and the girl she befriended back then are one and the same. As for Junko, she faces her own set of problems as she struggles with an array of alien emotions welling up inside her since she decided to save Chiaki, and Chiaki eventually decides to try and get her friend back. However, is it possible for Chiaki to get her friend back and redeem the self-proclaimed Super High School Level Despair or is Junko doomed to forever live in the despair within her own heart, and even if Chiaki is successful, can Junko ever have some semblance of a normal life, or has what's she's done up to that point too grave to ever be forgiven? One thing's for sure, Chiaki is going to try her hardest, and perhaps, maybe, just maybe, she can make a miracle.

* * *

Pain, that was the only thing on Nanami Chiaki's mind as she lay in a pool of her own blood. She had no idea just how much time had passed since she had been impaled and ended up in her current situation. Time seemed to slow down for her, and though she guessed that that seconds, maybe even minutes, had passed, each passing second felt like an eternity to her as she continued to lie on the floor staring up at the dark ceiling above. She could barely make it out as the room was poorly lit. What she had managed to establish was that the room was circular in design, and she was lying on a black and white chequered floor. She could make out doorways through the dim pale green light, doorways with curtains draped over them, though she was not interested in that.

All she could think about was how she ended up in her current predicament in the first place. It had started when her classmate, Tsumiki Mikan had failed to show up for class for a few days running and with what was going on outside the gates of Hope's Peak, with the Reserve Course Students staging a protest, everyone in class was becoming increasingly worried that something bad may have happened to her. However, Komaeda Nagito, another of her classmates, had had just come off suspension after he had blown up the school's gymnasium, which had held the Annual Practical Exam, had just returned to class claiming to have seen Mikan in the school's west district, which led to the class defying their teacher, Yukizome Chisa's order to stay in class, while at the same time, leaving her a note explaining where they had gone.

In order to broaden their search, the class had split up, and Chiaki had ended up with Nagito, who had led her to a statue of Hope's Peak founder, and as luck would have it, Nagito had opened up a secret passageway that led to a room where they met up with another of their classmates, Mitarai Ryōta, though it had been the first time meeting him, as the one who had been attending classes up until then had been an imposter, though she had only learned that later. However, then a girl emerged, whom she now knew as Enoshima Junko appeared, apparently, she had been holding Mitarai hostage. Anyway, Nagito then produced a gun and made clear his intent to kill the blonde-haired girl, going off on one of his hope speeches, but he spent so much time talking that someone else appeared, and when Nagito, who was usually always mysteriously lucky in whatever situation he was in tried to shoot the mysterious newcomer, his gun jammed, and then, the newcomer somehow whisked the gun out of his hand, and then shot him with it.

Fortunately for Nagito, his Student E-Handbook saved him from death, but as she studied the newcomer, she realised that he was really Hinata Hajime, a Reserve Course Student she had met the previous year, and whom stopped coming to see her after he turned her offer of playing a new game down, saying he had something that he had to do, and that was months, maybe even a year ago. However, despite recognising him, he had most definitely changed. His eyes, which had originally been a yellowish green were now crimson red, and had what appeared to be crosshairs in them, as his hair, which had been short and brown was now long and black. Despite those changes, she still recognised him as Hinata Hajime, though he did not seem to remember her.

However, unfortunately Enoshima had interrupted their reunion, and Chiaki was shocked to learn that she knew so much about her, but before she could do whatever it was she was planning to do to her, Miss Yukizome had appeared, throwing a fire extinguisher at Enoshima, and then ordered her to take Nagito and flee, much to her protest, but she did it anyway, and then informed the rest of the class that Miss Yukizome was in danger. However, just then, Mikan appeared, along with a beat-up Pekoyama Peko, who had been keeping Enoshima's backup busy while Nagito made his assassination attempt, though Chiaki had not really been paying attention to what he had been saying, as she had still been in awe at her surroundings.

Anyway, they all decided to go and rescue their teacher, though Nagito tried talking them out of it, citing that Enoshima and her group were too strong for them to take on, but she did not want to abandon her teacher, and after a pep talk from her, they all decided to go for it, with Nagito claiming that his dissuasion speech had been a test, though now, she could safely say that she had been better off listening to him, as Mikan had unexpectedly betrayed her after separating her from the others, but if that was not enough, she had met up with Miss Yukizome, who had also betrayed her by shoving her into an elevator. That was when Enoshima appeared and informed her that she had brainwashed Miss Yukizome into her puppet, and it was safe to assume that she had done the same to Mikan as well, which could account for her mysterious disappearance, though just how Mikan ended up running into Enoshima, she did not know.

Afterwards, Chiaki remembered Enoshima subjected her to some labyrinth of death with 8-bit music playing in the background. It was clearly a parody of a video game, and Chiaki liked playing video games, so Enoshima had basically set it up to taunt her, informing her that she intended to kill her in order to send her classmates into despair, and that was how she ended up in her current situation. She had fallen victim to Enoshima's traps within the labyrinth, but what really caused Chiaki to end up lying in a pool of her own blood was when she reached the end of the labyrinth, the exit conveniently marked "GOAL", just as she opened the door and was met with some kind of hallucination of Miss Yukizome and all her classmates, with Miss Yukizome even greeting her, she had been shot through her upper torso with a spear, and just as she was falling to the floor, more spears shot out of the floor, temporarily suspending her in mid-air before retracting, and she could hear Enoshima's voice, but had been too shocked with disbelief to have heard what she had said.

Anyway, despite being down and bleeding to death, Chiaki refused to give up. She could feel the blood seeping out of her body, and yet, despite this, she was determined to get up and push on. She was not about to let something such as hypovolemia stop her. She was determined that she was going to defy the reality of her situation and rescue Miss Yukizome and all her classmates, and then they would all deal with Enoshima and put an end to her twisted plans once and for all. After all, that's what normally happens in adventure stories, right? The protagonist is usually beaten to within an inch of their life, but then they miraculously somehow manage to summon the strength needed to beat the bad guy and save the day.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps grabbed her attention. They came as a soft clicking sound, which told Chiaki that whomever they belonged to was female. She looked behind her to see a pair of black high-heeled boots coming towards her, and looking up caused her blood to run cold, as she recognised the person coming towards her, and unfortunately for her, it was the last person she wanted to see.

"Sonna!" Chiaki whispered in disbelief, "Anyone but her!"

"Well, well, isn't this a sight?" the voice of Enoshima Junko came, as the girl herself stood over the fallen gamer girl, looking down on her with a rather smug looking grin on her face that spread across her face, "Nanami Chiaki-san, gakkōiinchō of Class 77B."

Chiaki remained silent, though she shot the blonde-haired girl a defiant glare in an attempt to hide her growing sense of fear. Looking up at Enoshima, Chiaki had to say that she looked rather intimidating. Maybe the blood-loss was causing her to hallucinate, or perhaps it was the way that the light was shining off Enoshima's eyes, but whatever it was, Enoshima's eyes seemed to be giving off a rather frighteningly eerie phosphorescent blue glow, and it, along with her sadistic grin, only served to make her look even more intimidating.

"Ā, still rather hopeful I see," Enoshima said in a mocking tone, as she continued to look down at the fallen gamer girl, "Haven't given into despair yet. That's just good because the longer you continue to hold onto that futile hope of yours, the greater the despair you'll feel when your hope finally gives out."

"You won't get away with this," Chiaki growled weakly, as she continued to glare up at Enoshima.

"Ha, I've already gotten away with it, Babydoll," Enoshima said, spreading her arms out in a gesture of triumph, "Your classmates have fallen to despair after witnessing your untimely demise and are now my Super High School Level Despairs. They all now believe you to be dead, and so long as they continue to believe so that's all that really matters."

Chiaki winced at that, but then Enoshima brought her arms down and folded them across her abdomen, as she continued to look down at Chiaki, though she really had to wonder what Enoshima meant with the last part of her statement.

"Well, as much as I like brag about my accomplishment, I don't have much time, and well, I'm sure you're wondering exactly why I came down here to see you," the despair-obsessed girl continued to ramble on, "I think that you believe that I'm just making sure that you're dead. Well, that's not the case. After all, with the amount of blood you've lost, I think it's safe to say that there's no chance of you somehow managing to survive."

"Ē?" Chiaki said in confusion, clearly not expecting that answer, though she could feel herself starting to lose consciousness.

"There's no way you could last much longer in your state," Enoshima went on, adorning a pair of ovular glasses and her pigtails somehow merging into a ponytail, "You're experiencing what is known in the medical profession as, Hypovolemic Shock. Suffice to say, you're already losing consciousness and will be dead within minutes without the proper treatment."

As much as Chiaki tried to listen, she found that she could not, as she was in the midst of losing consciousness. Her vision was starting to fade and Enoshima's voice felt rather distant, like it was far away.

"However, fortunately for you, I have what you may define as good news," Enoshima went on, either oblivious or choosing to ignore the gamer girl's loss of consciousness, even as she took off her glasses and her ponytail seemed to morph back into her trademark twin pigtails, and she followed it up with a rather excited smile, "It seems that I've had a last minute change of heart and decided that you could have some further use to me alive."

By then, Chiaki had already lost consciousness, causing Enoshima to frown.

"Ā, she's unconscious now," she said in a disappointed tone, "Bummer, I had hoped she'd at least hold out until I had finished talking."

* * *

Enoshima Junko stood over the bleeding unconscious form of Nanami Chiaki after she had just finished talking to her, only stopping when she had noticed that she had fallen into unconsciousness. To most people, it would have seemed as if Nanami had died, but Junko was not most people. Despite her looks, and what most people thought when they saw her, Junko possessed a high level of intelligence as well as an almost superhuman analytical ability that enabled her to have near-perfect if not absolutely perfect clarity in just about everything. Despite her official title being the Super High School Level Fashion Diva, she had read up and researched the medical field, mainly as a way to keep herself occupied, and to prevent herself from becoming bored, plus she figured that it could prove to be of help to her in the future.

Anyway, contrary to popular belief, when people are dealt serious life-threatening injuries, at the point the succumb to said injuries, they did not die right away, they just lapsed into unconsciousness before dying a short time later. Junko knew that that timespan, from when they lapsed into unconsciousness to when they actually died, was only a matter a minutes. She knew that within a few minutes, Nanami would be dead. She then glanced behind her and gave a brief nod, seemingly to the darkness behind her, but then several Reserve Course Students that she had brainwashed to her side flooded the corridor, carrying various pieces of medical equipment, the equipment needed to save Nanami's life. Some were even carrying various medicines that that were needed, and a big group of them were even pushing a CAT scan machine.

One of the Reserve Course Students walked up to Junko and handled her a few rolls of bandages, that she gracefully took, and then she hurriedly bent down to the unconscious gamer girl and then ripped all her clothes off before wrapping her entire body, save her head, in bandages to both, cover her wounds and preserve her modesty. She then made sure the Nanami was on her back, as two Reserve Course Students wheeled a hospital bed up beside her, and then Junko, once she was sure everything was satisfactory, stood up and stepped aside as the two brainwashed students then went over to Nanami and gently lifted her up and placed her into the waiting hospital bed, while making sure that her feet were elevated a foot above the bed.

Like Junko had told her, Nanami was currently in a state of Hypovolemic Shock, and Junko had researched it extensively. Despite the massive blood loss Nanami suffered, Junko knew that it was possible to save her, though, the window in which to do so was only a matter of minutes. Once Nanami was safely on the bed, Junko then hurriedly got to work hooking the unconscious gamer girl to the necessary parts of equipment. Since she lost a massive amount of blood, Junko knew that Nanami would need a few transfusions, and fortunately one of the Reserve Course Students was carrying multiple blood packs, and also, what was fortunate was that Junko knew Nanami's blood type, having discovered that during one of her many hacks of Hope's Peak's computer network. It had been when Tsumiki had brought the class to her attention, one of her first courses of action was to hack the network and study their profiles, which also detailed their blood types, so the blood within those packs were of Nanami's blood type.

Once Nanami was hooked up, another brainwashed student handed Junko a blanket that she proceeded to drape over Nanami's bandaged form in order to prevent her from succumbing to hypothermia. Junko honestly had no idea how much time had passed, but she found herself sighing with relief when the readouts on the monitor told her that Nanami's condition had stabilised. She then turned to group of students with the CAT scan machine, and they obediently wheeled it into position. There was also a long line of extension cords leading down the corridor where the students had all come from, indicating that nearest socket was not in the room they were currently in.

The two students that lifted Nanami onto the bed then lifted her and placed her on the CAT scan machine while Junko went over to the controls and then carried out the necessary actions, and afterwards it revealed that Nanami would need surgery due to internal damage.

"Che, I guess I'll have do it myself," she grumbled, clearly not happy at this turn of events, "But then, what do you expect?"

In all honesty, Junko really had no idea why she had changed her mind about Nanami. Even before Nanami had led the rest of her class back to her, Junko found herself with a change of heart. She could not explain it, but ever since she laid eyes on her, heck, even before meeting her in person, when Tsumiki had shown her photographs of the class together, she found herself drawn to Nanami. Somehow she was able to pick her out as soon as Tsumiki mentioned her name before telling her which of the girls in the photos was Nanami in the first place. Somehow Junko already knew who she was before having it confirmed.

Anyway, her original plan had been to get Nanami to watch the Despair Video that she used to brainwash Tsumiki and Yukizome, but when Yukizome interfered, her plan changed, realising that since Nanami was loved by all her classmates, then killing her would be the easiest way to bring despair to her classmates and bring them over to her side. Using Mitarai's techniques, and then applying them to a live video feed that showed Nanami's death would be sufficient, and it worked. Her classmates were all now in the deep end of the pool that was despair and Junko was ready to bring them round to her way of thinking before setting them lose to corrupt and destroy the entire world for her.

However, not long after coming up with the plan to kill Nanami, she had a sudden change of heart. If she was being completely honest with herself, then she would have admitted that she clearly had no idea why she changed her mind. Maybe she could still be of use to her alive or perhaps she wanted to drag the gamer girl further into the depths of despair. Yeah, Junko figured with a nod, that had to be it, she wanted to have more fun torturing her. For the time being though, she did not want Nanami to die just yet. Recalling her defiant glare a few minutes earlier, Junko could see that the gamer girl had still been full of hope. She had not given into despair, and her dying before falling into despair was not acceptable. Junko then smiled, nodding her head.

"Un, that must be it," she rationalised to herself.

Anyway, after she had her change of heart regarding the gamer girl, she had realised that it was too late to alter her plan, so she had decided to take a gamble. Using her knowledge of life-threatening injuries, she had called in a large group of Reserve Course Students and had them take the equipment from the facility's medical room. The facility itself was where the Steering Committee had kept Kamukura Izuru, their so-called Super High School Level Hope. Kamukura was originally a Reserve Course Student that had been chosen to undergo a series of experiments in order to give him ever talent known to man, but at the cost of his original personality, and once the transformation was complete, he was given the name, Kamukura Izuru, after Hope's Peak's founder.

Anyway, this was currently the facility where he had been stored, and fortunately it had a medical room available, though Junko reckoned that it had probably been due to in case any complications with the transformation arose. Nonetheless, the medical room had been equipped to deal with every known medical emergency imaginable. She got the students ready even before the execution, as she knew that when Nanami was impaled, she would only have a few minutes to save her, and she reckoned that by the time she reached the medical room and got everything set up, Nanami would have already died, plus picking her up and running with her in her state would probably have only sped up the time it took for her to die. It had been a gamble, and though Junko would never admit, not even to herself, she had been hoping that Nanami would pull through.

Of course, there was still a chance that Nanami could perish if the damage to her internal organs were not treated, and Junko was currently preparing to perform the surgery herself, despite having no experience beforehand. However, she had researched surgical procedures with her analytical ability, and she knew what to do.

"You're being too frantic," a new voice came from down the corridor, causing Junko to turn and look in the direction she had come down, and her eyes widened in astonishment, as she saw none other than Kamukura Izuru himself, and from the looks of it, he had been standing there for quite some time.

* * *

Kamukura Izuru walked towards Enoshima after grabbing her attention.

"You're too frantic," he said, repeating his earlier statement, "There's a high chance that you may accidentally kill her if you keep going, so let me take over."

"Ē, Kamukura-senpai?" Enoshima said, clearly surprised to see him, "What are you doing here?

"No time to argue, I'm taking over," Izuru said, shooting the blonde-haired girl a stern look that said "don't argue with me", "You're trying to save her aren't you?"

"Un," Enoshima said with a small nod, and then she complied with Kamukura's request, too stunned and surprised at his sudden intervention to object.

Izuru nodded before he then stepped in where Enoshima had been standing and analysed the situation. Enoshima silently showed him the results of the CAT scan, and after analysing that, he just nodded and then got to work after preparing himself. While he was operating on the gamer girl, he could not help but occasionally glance over at Enoshima, who looked on with an expression that he could identify as worry and concern. She clearly did not look all that comfortable, constantly shifting her position and occasionally pacing back and forth, but nonetheless, she remained silent, which the apathetic boy appreciated. He had expected her to constantly interrupt him with agitated cries for him to hurry up, but to his surprise, despite her look of impatience, she just left him to get on with it, and for him, it was one of the rare occasions he was genuinely surprised, as despite only knowing Enoshima for a short amount of time, he had come to know her enough to know that she was currently out of character.

That was indeed surprising, considering that Enoshima was the one that did this to the girl, Nanami Chiaki, he believed her name was, and yet, here she was fretting over her like she was her best friend. It clearly confused him. How could someone possibly attempt to kill someone, only to try and save them right as they were at death's doorstep? It was unthinkable and illogical. If Enoshima wanted her alive, then why did she put her through all that in the first place. It was something that he decided to file away for later. Right now, he had a gamer girl to save.

* * *

Junko had no idea how much time passed before Kamukura had finished with the surgery. She remained silent throughout the entire procedure, knowing that he needed to concentrate. Sure, she had been tempted to inquire about his progress, but had managed to quash the temptation before it could overwhelm her. After all, surgery was a complicated and delicate procedure that needed to be taken slowly. She knew that surgeries could last hours, so there was no point in hassling Kamukura. In fact, hassling him could prove dangerous, as she knew that the more she hassled him, the more likely it would be for him to make a mistake due to the pressure she would have put on him, and there was a greater chance of Nanami dying as a result, or, even if she survived, complications may arise later due to the rushed surgery.

Another reason she did not hassle Kamukura was because she did not want to get on his bad side. He was not an enemy anyone in their right minds would want to have, that was a certainty. She remembered when she first met him, when she tried to stab him with a knife. She knew that he would effortlessly counter her, which he did, but when her sister, Ikusaba Mukuro came to her aid, he sent her flying across the room with a light backhand, and as the Super High School Level Soldier, Mukuro had not suffered a single injury, not even so much as a minor scratch on her body despite being in countless battles during her time with the mercenary group, Fenrir. It would normally be inconceivable for someone like that to have been defeated so easily, and Kamukura and managed to deal with both Despair Sisters without even standing up, and with such little effort.

She knew everything about the Kamukura/Hope Cultivation Project. It was a project that Hope's Peak's Steering Committee had started, using the extortionate fees that the Reserve Course Students paid to attend to fund it. The goal of the project was to create hope within ordinary people, and was named after the academy's founder, the original Kamukura Izuru. She had managed to hack into their network before she even started attending, and she had been disappointed with the level of security. Apparently, no one in the Steering Committee or any of the organisations associated with them knew much about computer software, as their network's security was overwhelmingly outdated to the point where even a computer savvy preteen would have no problem breaking in. As she had told Mukuro the day before they started attending, the Steering Committee were clearly "so far up their own asses" that they were delusional. Even the physical around campus was a joke. It would not take much of an organised group to deal with them, though she had to wonder if the lax security was intentional on the part of Sakakura Jūzō, the head of security in order to make it easier for Yukizome, one of his colleagues to get around more easily.

Anyway, feeling that she was getting off topic, she focussed her thoughts back to Kamukura. He was not someone to mess with. He had every talent known to man, and Junko had decided to bring him over to her side. She knew that with every talent imaginable and being the best of the best at everything, and not having a challenge had rendered him bored with everything and his boredom had led to a state of perpetual apathy. She could understand that to an extent, as her intelligence coupled with her superhuman analytical abilities had also led to her being bored with everything since she could practically predict every possible outcome to every situation imaginable. However, the difference was that, whereas Kamukura was bored to the point of lacking motivation to do anything, she sought despair, seeing it as the only unpredictable thing out there, and she approached Kamukura with the promise of showing him the unpredictability of despair, though Junko was not stupid. She knew that she could not order him around like all those she brainwashed. In fact, his state of apathy had given him natural immunity to her Despair Video. Of course, she could have him restrained and lobotomised like Yukizome, but she knew that even if they managed to restrain him, he'd probably just break free, and that was a risk she was not prepared to take.

The main reason she had approached Kamukura in the first place was because she knew he would prove useful to her in her plan to cause the Most Despair Inducing Event in Human History, which was a plan to plunge the world into a perpetual state of despair by breaking down law and order. She had organised the incident at Hope's Peak to serve as a catalyst, by arranging the "Killing Game" between the members of the Student Council, and pinning the blame on Kamukura, she had recorded the entire thing and sent the recording to the Reserve Course Students, which caused them to protest. She hoped that the anger would spread worldwide, and not only that, but disenfranchised people everywhere would get wind of it and use it as an excuse to make their grievances heard, and then others would seek to use the chaos to further their own agendas, which Junko hoped, would lead to the downfall of society itself, as the people get so absorbed in their anger and frustrations that they end up forgetting why they started in the first place and it became chaos just for the sake of chaos.

"The 1930s is my favourite period in history," she thought to herself.

Her plan was basically the 1930s on steroids, only rather than financial issues leading to it, the catalyst incident was anger at a Japanese institution for apparently creating a murderer, and with the Steering Committee's habit of trying to cover up anything that would give Hope's Peak bad press, she had basically turned them into her unwitting protectors. However, this time, they would not be able to bury it, as because of the video, the truth was now getting out, and she was counting on others using the outcry as an excuse to make their misfortunes known.

"It's done," Kamukura's voice came, bringing her out of her thoughts and back to reality, and she found herself staring at Kamukura, who was now staring at her, his clothes stained with Nanami's blood, and she could see Nanami, who was lying peacefully on the bed.

She could also see that Kamukura had also replaced her bandages and had stitched her up, and she let out a sigh of relief.

"She should be alright, but for now, she needs to rest," Kamukura went on before he then regarded her with narrowed eyes, "Though I must say, I find it strange that you're trying to save her, considering that you're the one that did that to her in the first place."

"I could have some use for her alive," Junko said with a smirk, as her usual personality reasserted itself, "Besides, I didn't manage to obliterate all her hope. Even to the very end, she still held onto that futile hope of hers, that somehow, she'll be like an action hero, miraculously ignore all her injuries and then kick my ass. She won't die till I've erased all her hope and cram so much despair up her ass that she'll come begging me to kill her."

"And how do you intend to do that?" Kamukura asked curiously, raising a questioning eyebrow.

"Ē?" Junko said in surprising, clearly getting caught off guard with Kamukura's question, "W-what do you mean?"

"Elaborate on what you just said," Kamukura challenged, though despite his words, he still sounded as apathetic as ever.

For a brief moment, Junko just stood there in stunned silence, unable to think of an answer, but she very quickly regained her composure.

"To be perfectly honest with you, Kamukura-senpai, I don't know just yet," she finally said simply, "I haven't thought that far ahead yet."

"Sokka," Kamukura said simply, though from the way he looked, Junko could tell that he was not convinced, and probably believed that she had some ulterior motive for keeping Nanami alive beyond what she told him.

"And how about you, senpai?" she said, as she realised that Kamukura stepping in to help was so out of character of him that it gave her the perfect means of changing the subject, "Why did you decide to take over and help her?"

This time, it was Kamukura's turn be stunned as his eyes widened in realisation.

"Normally you like to just stand back and observe with your vocabulary consisting of either kyōmiganai or tsumaranai," Junko went on, pointing out how he did not just stand around and observe this time, "I don't see how you had any reason to step in."

She then paused and folded her arms across her abdomen.

"And yet you did so anyway, that's so not like you, Kamukura-senpai," she finished with an inquiring look, "If you had just stood there like normal, there's a good chance that Nana-chan would have died, as you said before, I was too frantic and I may have may a mistake. My experience in surgery is zilch, but I know what to do thanks to my analytical ability, but I guess I still could make a mistake, especially if I was as frantic as you said."

* * *

Izuru raised an eyebrow at Enoshima's last comment. However, he had to admit that she had caught him off guard, and she did bring up a perfectly good point. Just why had he decided to break his usual routine and work to save Nanami Chiaki? Like Enoshima had pointed out, he was mainly just an observer, only acting if it was in his own interest to do so, and yet, he had decided to take over from Enoshima when he realised that she was too frantic in her efforts to save Nanami Chiaki. If he had just stood there and watched like Enoshima had said, there was a chance that Nanami Chiaki would be dead, which was why he had intervened, but the question was, why? What business was this girl's fate of his? He should not really care whether she lived or died. In fact, thinking of it from a logical perspective, her condition was not entirely Enoshima's fault. Sure, he did admit that Enoshima did share the blame, but she was equally at fault for rushing into Enoshima's lair unprepared, and she should have realised that Enoshima had been expecting her return.

He had been there when they first met. She had come with a white-haired boy, Komaeda, she remembered Nanami Chiaki addressing him as. She was in the company of this Komaeda person, and Komaeda had made it known that he had intended to kill Enoshima, and he had already accounted for Enoshima's sister, having someone keep Ikusaba occupied while he dealt with Enoshima. He had not particularly cared whether or not Komaeda succeeded or not, as he did not really care for Enoshima or her plans. He only stayed with her in an effort to see if she could provide him with amusement, and so far, she had failed to live up to her promise to show up the unpredictability of despair. Everything she did all had predictable outcomes, but he still stuck with her just in case she surprised him.

However, that did not mean to say that he would step in to save her life. If she got killed, that was her own fault. He only attacked Komaeda because he turned the gun he had on him when he noticed him, though the gun jammed just as Komaeda pulled trigger. He then whisked the gun from Komaeda's hand and then shot him, though his Student E-Handbook saved his life. He did learn that Komaeda had been blessed with good luck, but unfortunately for Komaeda, Izuru had even more good luck than he did. However, it was then that Nanami Chiaki caught his interest, first by addressing him as "Hinata-kun". Even after Enoshima interrupted them he, for whatever reason could not take his eyes off her. It was like he was drawn to her and his curiosity had been piqued.

However, before he could think on it, Nanami Chiaki and Komaeda's teacher, Yukizome Chisa had come to their rescue and held off Enoshima while they got away. Of course, it led to Yukizome being captured and from what he heard from Enoshima, it was clear that she expected Nanami Chiaki and Komaeda to bring their entire class back with them in a rescue attempt. However, as he predicted, it had ended badly with Nanami Chiaki nearly getting killed and her classmates, who all now believed her to be dead, becoming Enoshima's brainwashed minions, so thinking about it from that perspective, both Enoshima and Nanami Chiaki were to blame, Enoshima for leading them into the trap, and Nanami Chiaki for blindly walking into the trap. It was as simple as that.

Of course, from what he just witnessed, he could safely say that he was not the only one who was acting out of character in regards to Nanami Chiaki. From what he observed from when Enoshima got to work trying to save her, she was also out of character. That did intrigue him. From what he observed of Enoshima so far, she held herself in high regard, and viewed others as being beneath her. She was also rather sadistic and did not seem to be afraid of anything. Heck, she was not even afraid of him when he had her head underneath his shoe after he stopped her from trying to kill him with a knife. In fact, she seemed rather ecstatic at the prospect of facing her own demise. It was nothing like what he had just witnessed.

When saving Nanami Chiaki, she had a look of genuine worry and concern. It was clear that she did not want the gamer girl to die. Even though she remained silent while he was performing surgery on her, Izuru could tell that she was panicking, fearing that she may have killed her. It was unlike the Enoshima he had gotten to know over the past few days. She was so different that it was like she was a completely different person.

"Just how is that possible?" the apathetic boy wondered to himself.

Of course, as soon as Nanami Chiaki was out of danger, Enoshima was back to her old self, claiming that she was unhappy that Nanami Chiaki did not fall to despair and was only keeping her alive to drive her to despair. It did fit with Enoshima's personality, and he would have believed that if not for the worry and concern she had shown. It was because she was worried that she had been so frantic in the first place, and he knew, just by looking at her, that if he had not stepped in when he did, and Nanami Chiaki died, it would have devastated her. If she really wanted to keep Nanami Chiaki alive just so she could torture her more and drive her to despair, he reaction, if she had died, would have probably been to shrug it off as disappointing, or she could have flown into a rage and screamed at Nanami Chiaki for dying on her, her rage being born from the fact that she could not drive her to despair and she died while hanging onto hope.

It was fortunate for him that psychology was one of the many talents he had been endowed with, and as a result, he could read people like open books. He used his talent in psychology to catch Enoshima off guard when he asked her to elaborate on how she intended to torture Nanami Chiaki, but unfortunately, she had managed to change the subject by pointing out how he was also out of character. However, it there was one thing he learned from what had just transpired, is that Enoshima was not what she seemed, and that the personality he had gotten to know over the past few days was nothing more than a mask. It had to be. Of course, one could argue that the worry and concern, and the fear on Nanami Chiaki dying were all a mask as well, but Izuru knew better. He knew that the degree that Enoshima had shown those emotions could not be faked, no matter how good an actor someone was, and Enoshima was a superb actor, even able to fool those of her classmates that were pretty good as reading other people, and from what he learned, one of those classmates had serious problems trusting others and seemed to believe that everyone was going to backstab him at the first opportunity, and yet, Enoshima even managed to fool him.

Anyway, Enoshima could not have faked the emotions she had displayed over Nanami Chiaki's predicament, despite the fact that she was responsible for Nanami Chiaki being in said predicament in the first place. Upon further observations, he could also be certain that Enoshima herself had not been aware of her own emotions and genuinely believed what she told him herself. In other words, Enoshima was lying, not just to him, but also to herself, and it made him wonder if the self-proclaimed Super High School Level Despair really loved despair as much as she claimed, or if it was only just a front to hide her true self. He would go as far as to say that it was a coping mechanism of some kind.

"And I'm not even sure why I care," he said aloud.

"Ē, are you trying to change the subject, Kamukura-senpai?" Enoshima said curiously, placing her hands on her hips and raising an eyebrow.

"I'm just thinking… and what I was thinking about is none of your concern," Izuru said, narrowing his eyes at the despair-obsessed girl, letting her know that he was not in the mood for her probing.

"Ooh, you're so mean," Enoshima said in a display of faux hurt, "You really know how to break a girl's heart, you know that?"

Izuru just grunted in response, and then looked away. He did not know why he cared that Enoshima had a metaphorical mask. However, during their argument, Enoshima's mask had slipped when she admitted to being frantic before he had stepped in. Also, he did notice when she had referred to Nanami Chiaki as, Nana-chan. It was a logical nickname based of the first four letters of her surname. However, it was an affectionate nickname, and not one that someone like Enoshima would use while referring to someone like Nanami Chiaki. Of course, sometimes one's enemies would sometimes use their affectionate nicknames in order to mock them, but as far as Izuru knew, that was only when addressing them directly. Enoshima had been talking to him when she had referred to Nanami Chiaki, and not Nanami Chiaki herself. It made no sense for her to refer to the unconscious girl in such a manner.

In any case, none of that explained why he had decided to step in when he did. By all rights, he should have left Nanami Chiaki to her fate, and yet, he had chosen to help Enoshima in saving her. It was not for Enoshima's sake, after all, her feelings were none of his concern, and he did predict that one of the possible outcomes of Nanami Chiaki being that Enoshima would notice him and then take her frustrations out on him because he had stood back and done nothing, and because she would have been caught up in her emotions, she would have forgotten that he never stepped in to deal with anything. It would have just been Enoshima's desire to take her grief out on someone, in which case, he would have just walked away.

"Well, perhaps I can shed some light on the subject," Enoshima said, bringing him out of his thoughts and back to reality, "I do remember that Nana-chan did call you Hinata-kun."

"So, that name means nothing to me," Izuru said with an uncaring shrug.

"Hontōni, you're not all that interested in the person you once were?" Enoshima said, feigning surprise.

"Why should I be?" Izuru replied with a shrug, "Whoever I was does before not really matter. All vestiges on this body's former identity have been erased to make way for me, so the person I once was no longer exists."

"True, but Nana-chan clearly recognised you," Enoshima said in response, "She obviously knew your former identity, and recognised you, so maybe there are still dregs of your former identity buried deep in your subconscious."

Izuru's eyes widened at that.

"Masaka," he could not help but say in disbelief.

It did not seem possible. From what he understood, he had been someone else before becoming Kamukura Izuru, but the person he had been before should no longer exist, at least that's what he had been told, and thinking that explanation over, it did seem logical. However, armed with what he knew now, he could not help but question that notion. By all rights, even if he had met Nanami Chiaki before, and had gotten to know her pretty well, since that personality no longer existed, then all memories and feelings pertaining to Nanami Chiaki should no longer exist as well, and yet, remembering how she had addressed him, and thinking back to his uncharacteristic desire to save her, the only explanation could think of was that somehow, against all logic, some part of his old personality, of this Hinata person, must still exist somewhere within him, and that was what had influenced him.

"That's not logical," he found himself saying, unsure what else to say.

"Well, it's the only explanation I can think of," Enoshima said with a shrug, "You were once a haisha, a talentless wastrel by the name of Hinata Hajime. I got that information when I hacked into the academy's network."

Izuru just responded with a nod, and then urged her to continue.

"From what I understand, Hinata-kun was a big fan of Kibōgamine Gakuen, and had high hopes, but unfortunately he did not possess a talent, and his ryōshin did not have enough money to pay for the extortionate fees needed to attend the Reserve Course," Enoshima started to narrate, as she adorned her glasses and her pigtails merged into a ponytail, "However, fortunately the Hyōgiiin were able to allow him to attend for free on a special scholarship, but in return, he had to agree to participate in the project that birthed you, and if he refused… well he would have gone back to his original kōtōgakkō. So basically, he was chosen before he started attending, and the Hyōgiiin simply took advantage of his admiration of Kibōgamine."

She the paused as she took off her glasses, and her ponytail reverted back to being pigtails.

"And somewhere along the line, Hinata-kun must've crossed paths with Nana-chan, though what she can possibly see in a haisha like that, I'll never know," she went on, as she suddenly started going into a rant, "I mean, he's a talentless nobody. If he perished, no one would miss him… well, maybe except for his ryōshin, but they're no longer a problem, I mean, the Hyōgiiin already dealt with them to tie up loose ends, so no one really cares for some haisha. There are tons of people way better than him, much, much better than him. Nana-chan's clearly wasting her time pinning after him."

Izuru's eyes widened, shocked at the news that the Steering Committee had actually murdered Hinata Hajime's parents, but thinking about it, it did make sense. After all, he knew that his creation was something that they did not want anyone knowing about, and since it was logical that his parents had given their consent, and had been kept in the dark about what was really going on, it made sense that they would eventually inquire about the disappearance of their son, and since it could lead to them poking their noses where the Steering Committee did not want them, it was the logical solution to have them dealt with, permanently.

However, upon going over that, he suddenly felt a new emotion build up within him, causing him to clench his fists and glare ahead of him. This new emotion also filled him with the desire to seek out the members of the Steering Committee and beat them to death. He knew that this was none other than hostility, he found himself having hostile intend towards the Steering Committee, and the emotion responsible for this hostility, it felt as if something was boiling beneath him. Anger, he realised, he must be experiencing anger, though the boiling feeling he felt made anger seem like a massive understatement, the more accurate term would be, rage. He was enraged at the Steering Committee, and like with his desire to help Nanami Chiaki, he had no idea why.

However, unlike before with Nanami Chiaki, going over what Enoshima just told him, he now knew why. It was hearing the news of the deaths of Hinata Hajime's parents, two people that should be complete strangers to him, and yet her he was expressing rage over their deaths towards the ones responsible for their death. Heck he had no idea what they even looked like. However, since he had been Hinata Hajime before his "birth", his emotions were understandable, and he took it as more proof that Hinata Hajime still existed within him in some form. He wondered if he would have recognised Hinata Hajime's parents if he met them. He knew that he would not have identified them as the bearers of the body which he inhabited, but perhaps he would have some nagging feeling that they were important to him in some form. It was the same with Nanami Chiaki. He did not recognise her when he first saw her, but she had a sneaking suspicion that she had been important to him somehow. It was like a sense of déjà vu.

"If you think I'm lying, go and look it up," Enoshima went on, after calming down from her rant, "I have all the information on my laptop."

Obviously, Enoshima anticipated the possibility that he believed that she was lying to him, and he had to admit, due to Hinata Hajime's influence, he was tempted to accuse her of lying, but thinking about it logically, he realised that accusing someone of lying when told a truth that they did not agree with was the easiest option. Whenever faced with unpleasant and unwanted truths, people tended retreat into their own little worlds that existed in their minds. They always sought the easy way out, by ignoring those truths under the mistaken belief that if they ignore what they don't like then it would eventually go away. He could accuse Enoshima of lying, but that would not change anything. He made a note to check her laptop later just to be sure.

Anyway, speaking of Enoshima, he had noticed yet another change in character in her when she started ranting about Hinata Hajime. The way she regarded him in regards to his relationship with Hinata Hajime struck him as odd. It was as if she did not agree with Nanami Chiaki being in his company, and he was also sure that her putting him down due to his lack of talent was yet another mask. Categorising human emotions, Izuru realised that Enoshima must be envious of Hinata Hajime. She envied him due to the fact that he had been in Nanami Chiaki's company. Of course, people tended to use the word, jealousy, but that was a misconception. Envy was when someone wanted something that someone else had, jealousy was when someone saw someone else with something that was already theirs and were afraid of losing. Since both tended to bring out similar emotions, it was easy to get them both mixed up.

In the current situation, for envy, Enoshima would have wanted to be Nanami Chiaki's friend, but she was already friends with Hinata Hajime, whereas with jealousy, Enoshima would have already been friends with Nanami Chiaki and would be afraid that Hinata Hajime was trying to take her away from her. However, that only served to confuse him, as Enoshima had no reason to display her bout of envy. By all rights, she should not even care in Nanami Chiaki and Hinata Hajime were friends in the past. It completely astounded him that she did, though he knew that if he were to bring it up, Enoshima would no doubt deny it and attempt to change the subject like she had done before.

"I guess you really have surprised me after all, Enoshima Junko," the apathetic boy thought to himself, "Though not in the way you intended, and to think that it's all thanks Nanami Chiaki."

He had to admit that because of Nanami Chiaki, they were both acting out of character, but at least he was able to discover the cause of why he was out of character, but it did not explain the cause of Enoshima's actions, but thanks to them, he was able to decipher that Enoshima's love of despair was possibility a façade or a coping mechanism of some kind, or maybe even both. However, the question was, what was it about Nanami Chiaki that caused her mask to disappear? He knew it was pointless asking the blonde-haired girl herself, as from his observations, she was clearly not aware of her own emotions. Heck, he doubted that she was even aware that she had been referring to her as, "Nana-chan", which was unusual.

It was then, he made up his mind. He would stay with Enoshima, but only to investigate her interactions with Nanami Chiaki because, from what he knew beforehand, Enoshima had no reason to care about her the way she did, and if she did not really care about Nanami Chiaki then her interactions would have all been predictable. However, Enoshima's sudden change of heart and apparent care and concern over the gaming was something he did not predict, and on top of that, he found himself wanting to know more about Hinata Hajime, the person he had been and why Nanami Chiaki found him so appealing. After all, from what Enoshima had said, Hinata Hajime did not possess a talent, and Nanami Chiaki possessed her gaming talent. By all rights, Hinata Hajime should have been beneath her, and yet she seemed to regard him as an equal. It totally went against the philosophy of Hope's Peak Academy, the talentless students that made up the Reserve Course were effectively segregated from the Main Course Students. He guessed that he would ask her when she woke up.

* * *

Junko sighed, shaking her head as she watched Kamukura, who seemed to be lost in thought. She then turned to look at Nanami's sleeping form. She looked so peaceful, and Junko could not help but smile.

"That's right, just you rest for now, Nana-chan," she thought, as a feeling of warmth unexpectedly washed over her, but then, as if realising what she was feeling, her warm smile transformed into a sadistic grin, "You're going to need it for when you wake up because I'm going to take my sweet time driving you to the deepest recesses of despair."

She then turned her attention to the group of Reserve Course Students that had carried in all the equipment that saved Nanami's life. They had all just stood there quietly like robots awaiting their next order and had made no indication that they had even been aware of what had been going on around them.

"Okay, let's get out of here and move Nanami to a more comfortable room," she said, and as if by magic, the Reserve Course Students all suddenly became very animated as one went behind the bed that Nanami was lying on and started to push while others tended to the equipment, to make sure that nothing became dislodged.

It was a slow process, since Junko did not want to hurt Nanami further. Junko then turned to Kamukura.

"Nē, Kamukura-senpai, do you still have that gun you confiscated from that Komaeda guy?" she asked curiously, and Kamukura responded by reaching into his blazer pocket and pulling out the gun, much to Junko's surprise, since she remembered that he dropped it after shooting Komaeda, "Wao, and here I thought you discarded it."

Kamukura didn't respond verbally, instead tossing the gun to Junko, guessing that she wanted it, and then he proceeded to walk onwards towards the elevator as a quicker pace than the others.

"What's with him?" the despair-obsessed girl asked curiously, but then she turned her attention to the Reserve Course student nearest her, who was coincidentally not helping with moving Nanami.

She then raised the gun to his head and fired. However, apart from his eyes widening in shock as soon as the bullet entered his skull before dropping down dead, he made no reaction whatever, despite the fact that Junko had shot him from the front, and he had plenty of time to react, and yet, he just stood there as if accepting his fate.

"I just felt like it," Junko said aloud to no one in particular, bringing the smoking gun up to her mouth and then blew the smoke away.

However, none of the other students stopped what they were doing, and in fact, did not even register the death of their fallen comrade. It was as if they had not been aware that it had actually happened, but none of that mattered to Junko as she immediately turned and started to lead the rest down the corridor towards the elevator, and she started thinking about Hinata, the person Kamukura had been before his "birth", or more specifically, the fact that Nanami had known who he was. Despite Kamukura looking nothing like his previous identity, Nanami had been able to recognise him regardless, and for some reason, that did not sit well with her.

She had not really cared about who Kamukura had been before. After all, Hinata was a talentless loser that was not worth anything. All she cared about was the here and now. Hinata was gone, and Kamukura was in his place, that's all that mattered. Hinata was a loser, Kamukura had every talent known to man, which made him a natural winner, so why did Nanami knowing Hinata bother her so much. That should not matter to her, and yet it did. Even when Nanami first noticed Kamukura and inquired about his looks, Junko somehow felt threatened, which was why she interrupted them.

Of course, it could be that Nanami knowing Kamukura's previous identity could prove problematic, as Junko was aware that perhaps, maybe, just maybe, some flicker of Kamukura's old identity still existed within his subconscious. One of the reasons she had sought out Kamukura was because she knew that he also had the potential to ruin her plans, not that she particularly cared if she succeeded or not, since failure to unleash despair on the world meant that she would end up having that despair all to herself, but not taking steps to deal with a potential threat in the future, knowing how dangerous it could be, was boring to her. Basically, her trying to ensure her plan's success was just another way for her to stave off boredom since the predictability of being stopped was boring.

Nodding to herself, she found herself accepting the explanation that Nanami knowing Kamukura as Hinata could prove problematic to her in future was the main reason she had lashed up against Hinata. Of course, she realised how contradictory sparing Nanami was, as she could still end up bringing Hinata to the surface and turn him against her, but she realised the potential quagmire she was now in. Kamukura was interested in Nanami. Even after she interrupted them when they first met and addressed Nanami directly, she had noticed out of the corner of her eye how Kamukura kept staring at her with a look of curiosity, more than his usual apathy. Analysing the situation thoroughly, she realised that she was potentially in a no-win situation. If Nanami had died, it could have sparked the Hinata within Kamukura to influence him into turning against her, as Hinata would no doubt be enraged that his friend had been murdered in cold blood, and keeping Nanami alive could also produce the same result, though without a rogue Kamukura influenced by a vengeful Hinata.

Anyway, regardless of all that, one thing was certain, even if Junko did not realise it herself, she did not want Nanami Chiaki to die, and if that led to the ruination of her plans due to Nanami turning Kamukura against her, so be it.

* * *

 **Japanese Glossary**

Sonna – Usually said when someone reacts to something upsetting, though mainly translated as "No" or "No way"

Gakkōiinchō – Class Rep

Ā – Ah/Oh

Ē – Huh (usually in surprise or shock)

Che – Damn or Damnit

Un – Yeah

Senpai – Japanese honorific that people use while addressing their seniors, like in school its used when addressing one's upperclassmen

Sokka – Usually translated as I see

Kyōmiganai – Not interested/I'm not interested

Tsumaranai – Boring/I'm bored

Kun – Japanese honorific generally used by people of senior status in regards to their colleagues, though it can also be used demonstrate people's closeness to those of the male gender. Can also be used while addressing male children teenagers, and among male friends

Chan – Japanese honorific that's used when people find others endearing, though can also be used while referring to babies, young children, teenager or grandparents and can also be used for cute animals, lovers, close friends, any youthful woman or between friends

Hontōni – Really

Masaka – Impossible/No way, usually said to express disbelief

Haisha – Loser

Kibōgamine Gakuen – Hope's Peak Academy

Ryōshin – Parents

Hyōgiiin – Japanese name for the Steering Committee

Kōtōgakkō – High School

Nē – Hey

Wao – Wow

* * *

 **Author's Note** – This is my latest fic. I have to say, I only got into Danganronpa back in late May and I find the storyline fascinating. Anyway, as soon as I saw what happened to Chiaki, I was not pleased at her fate, but I also find Junko a great villain, who I feel never really received any punishment considering that she enjoyed her own demise and is happy with herself in the afterlife. I know that Kodaka said that Junko doesn't really have any reason to do what she does, no sympathetic traits or tragic backstory, but beyond a few references, Junko's backstory and how she became the way she did is not really addressed aside from her analytical ability makes life boring for her, and I'm convinced that Kodaka can't really explain why Junko became obsessed with despair without contradicting himself. So I've decided to have a stab at it, and as you can guess, her backstory involves Chiaki in this slight AU, and also, Chiaki's backstory will be explored. Also, I would like to give a mention to Vixen7117, whom I discussed this idea with. When I first contacted them, they asked if they could use some of my ideas for their drabbles. Their fic is Chiaki Nanami Drabbles, and I gave them permission to do so. In fact their latest drabble uses my backstories for Junko, Chiaki and Mukuro (whose backstory will also be explored), though they weren't entirely accurate, I liked the drabble nonetheless.


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